Twenty Minutes
by MissMagicalCat
Summary: Two students of Hogwarts have been caught fighting- again, and a certain Transfiguration teacher is sick of it. Hopefully, this will get the troublemakers back into line, and help them stay there! DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. The world belongs to the beautiful JK Rowling, I just use it!


**A/N: Hello there! I'm actually not MissMagicalCat, but a friend of hers who is simply too lazy to make her own account! I really hope you enjoy my story, and if not, please feel free to leave a message on what I could improve on. Enjoy!**

It was an average dinner at Hogwarts; laughter and chatter echoed throughout the Great Hall, the Slytherins and Gryffindors glared at each other from their respective tables, and the teachers talked amongst themselves while keeping one eye on their students, as though they were afraid a fight would suddenly break out. However, something different about this dinner was the event to about to occur afterwards. Earlier in the day, the sixth year Slytherins and Gryffindors shared a corridor as they waited for their Transfiguration classroom door to open. Now, it was common knowledge that keeping any amount of students from either the Slytherin or Gryffindor House in any area , together, for any length of time was a foolish idea, but Minerva McGonagall had been running late- a very rare occurrence- and her students were without a strict, watchful eye for too long. When the Professor arrived to the corridor of her classroom, there was a large circle around two of the students, who were exchanging hexes and insults. The respected Professor had, of course, immediately put a stop to the foolishness, and kept the two students behind after class to discuss the appropriate punishment for their actions.

Some say that Professor Minerva McGonagall has no sense of humor, however when the punishment had been announced to the other Professors, the chuckles had not stopped for hours. Minerva herself has dished out the punishment in a spontaneous moment of creativity, and was very proud of her idea. She knew it would be effective, and had no doubt it would be used for years to come.

Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy were sitting in two chairs in the very center of the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were as far apart from each other as possible, however the fact that they were holding hands prevented the two from putting very much space between them. Professor McGonagall had given them two choices when she had caught them fighting earlier- the first one was to serve detentions every single day for the rest of the year with none other than Argus Filch. As the Christmas holidays hadn't even come yet, neither fancied that option much. The second option was to hold hands in the Entrance Hall for twenty minutes. The two, horrified at their choices, had reluctantly chosen the second option, leading to their current predicament.

The first five minutes of the punishment had been spent in a lecture from McGonagall as she told the two she was fed up with the petty rivalry, and she hoped this was the last she heard of their arguing. The next five had been spent in silence, as no one had quite realized what was going on, and many of the students were still enjoying the last of their desserts from dinner. The next five had been spent in echoes of laughter around the Hall, and the two watched as a crowd formed around them, having a good laugh at their expenses.

Ron watched as Hermione watched him smugly, she had warned him not to fight with Malfoy, promising he would get into trouble and telling him he was behaving rashly. He could also see Harry, casting him half-sympathetic, half-amused glances. He would spend a great deal of time later reminding Harry that Ron had been dueling on his behalf, as Malfoy had been badmouthing his best friend. Ron aslo caught sight of Fred, George and Lee Jorden, all wearing expressions of pure humor, George leaning on Lee clutching his stomach. He even caught a sight of his girlfriend, Lavender, standing further back into the crowd, alternating between casting him looks of pure sympathy, and glaring angrily at Draco for provoking her boyfriend. She stood with Parvati and Padma Patil, Padma (his date the Yule Ball in fourth year) seemed to be enjoying this sight immensely.

Draco looked at his hulking bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, hovering protectively around the edges of the circle, and Pansy Parkinson's pug-like face filled with jealously at Weasley's position. He held back a sneer of disgust. He could see the Greengrasses and Tracy Davis watching, no expressions on their faces, though he knew Daphne was dying to break into hysterical laughter. Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini were sending him looks of disgust, with an obvious message on their faces- _Don't come near us or our dorm until you have scrubbed yourself clean_. Draco couldn't help but agree with the two; why would he allow blood traitor filth to enter his dorm room?

Draco and Ron had both decided to hide their faces sixteen minutes into the punishment. Draco had laid his extra hand gracefully on the side of his face, and tilted his head downwards, successfully hiding his face from the Hogwarts public, and screening the view of the Hogwarts public out of his view. Ron had balanced his elbow on his knee and dropped his face into his hand, shutting his eyes. They both wished they could cast a charm to cover their ears, or better yet, block the crowd.

They endured the last few minutes of their punishment the best they could. As soon as the twenty minutes was up and the sticking charm on their hands broke, they leapt up, scowling at one another. After smoothing his robes, Draco was folded from view by Crabbe and Goyle, Theo and Blaise walking slightly ahead of him as they headed down to the dungeons to perform extensive cleansing charms before retiring to the dorm. Ron was tugged into a hug by Lavender, before he was clapped on the shoulder by Harry and steered up to the Gryffindor dorms with Hermione trailing after them.

Professor McGonagall exited the Great Hall and walked towards the now abandoned chair, internally smiling. Perhaps those boys had finally learned their lesson- and if not, twenty minutes could be easily increased into an hour.

**A/N: This story was inspired by a picture on Facebook, and was meant to have a slight crack-fic air about it. I really hope you liked it! Until next time!**

**~The Magic in MissMagicalCat**


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